Brooklyn Animation
The Amazing and Incredible History and Future of Brooklyn Animation
A few years ago, while researching in the Photography Collections of the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS), I came up empty. After hitting a roadblock, I was surprised that they didd not have any information on animation in Brooklyn.
Over the next few months, I proposed a screening and panel discussion to examine Brooklyn’s animation roots. I assembled an expert panel and worked with a film collector to curate and project examples from early Brooklyn Animation.
The event was titled :
“The Amazing and Incredible History and Future of Brooklyn Animation Event”
I wrote up a press release for the event.
“Long before Walt Disney, Pixar, The Simpsons, and WB Looney Tunes became synonymous with cartoons, American animation was born and bred in Brooklyn. Brooklyn was responsible for many of the most significant technical and thematic innovations in animation. And they continue to influence animation to this day.
I invited panelists and curated the program at Brooklyn Historical Society to pay tribute to the films of
- Winsor McCay – “The Father of American Animation” from Sheepshead Bay
- Max Fleischer and Fleischer Studios – based in Brownsville and NYC
- Jennifer Oxley – Animator and Creative Director from Brooklyn-based 100 Chickens Productions.
Author, animation historian and educator (and Oscar and Emmy Award winning animator) John Canemaker presented a lesson on Winsor McCay’s 150th birthday and provided interactive and live voice-over narration for McCay’s classic Gertie the Trained Dinosaur film (1914).
Film archivist Tommy Stathes projected clips from NYC based animators. His clips focused on innovations and inventions of Max Fleischer. He focused on the long-lasting significance of the rotoscope machine he patented in Brooklyn in 1917.
Jen Oxley spoke about her recent work with PBS Kids and the Fred Rogers Company. She screened examples from PEG + CAT, an Emmy Award winning animated film. In addition, she signed autographs and screened a new animated series that her production studio produced in Brooklyn.
Coincidentally, the screening and panel discussion also celebrated Winsor McCay’s 150th birthday. The show sold out.
There was even a brief write-up about the event in the Brooklyn Brownstoner and another one on Jerry Beck’s the Animation Scoop world, as well as a nice mention from our friends at Fleischer Studios in Florida.
“The Amazing and Incredible History and Future of Brooklyn Animation” Poster by Tom Siler